/
That night.
Zair was sitting in the middle of an unlit room, deep in thought.
A few hours ago, in the afternoon when the sun was strong. The spirit possessing the crow reported about Joo Yi-Gyeol, who it was monitoring, as it did every day. Normally, instead of saying this or that, it would dig straight into his head and show what had been through its eyes, but this time, it made quite a fuss even before that.
−Zair-nim! That kid was very apologetic to Zair-nim as expected!
Judging by his voice, the young man’s soul did not hesitate to call Yi-Gyeol that way, even though he was not worthy enough to call anyone a child.
−I think it will be easy to meet him separately since he wants to apologize!
The spirit that spoke with excitement immediately escaped the crow’s body and burrowed into Zair’s head. If he had taken the possession potion that Eda had secretly developed, he would have lost his body like the emperor or the crow, but because he had a strong mental ability and soul control, he only absorbs the other’s memories.
Zair accepted the soul’s memories that were naturally flowing into his head while maintaining complete control over his body.
After reading all of the memories, Zair was in fact pretty satisfied.
Not only did he(JYG) foolishly believe that he was worried about him, but he also felt guilty about the hand injury he received this time, and hoped he could make it up to him somehow. As expected, that person called Joo Yi-Gyeol was as weak and soft-hearted in nature as his appearance.
Even though it’s not his fault, Joo Yi-Gyeol has a habit of being apologetic and is cautious of harming others. Perhaps because he was extremely afraid of being hated by others.
For Zair, those with personalities such as Joo Yi-Gyeol could be said to be the most suitable human being to exploit and easiest to manipulate. Eda, who met Joo Yi-Gyeol in person, said the same thing as well.
However, something still bothers him.
“He has a sharper side than I thought.”
Eda said that Joo Yi-Gyeol sharply discerned the emotions hidden behind his smiling face. Then after deliberating about it for a few moments, he added it was more of a doubt than figuring it out.
However, Zair thought contrarily. He must’ve acted like he was simply suspicious of Eda, but in reality, he might’ve fully caught on to his innermost thoughts and was convinced of his hidden feelings.
‘Those who fear being hated by others are sensitive to negative emotions.’
Joo Yi-Gyeol saw right through that Eda was looking down on him and prodded to find out why. But Eda repeatedly denied it, saying it was not the case when Joo Yi-Gyeol questioned. Then, Joo Yi-Gyeol’s following response was inconsistently different from when he had been questioning, he smiled as he said he wanted to be close to Eda.
‘Must be concealing himself while nonetheless being wary.’
So this time too. Even though he had personally laid the sophistry, he couldn’t just smile and say that everything went as he wanted. Although the situation was clearly different from that time, it was certain that he would not just let go of his suspicion and vigilance.
The corners of Zair’s mouth malevolently went up.
‘It’s not fun if it’s too easy.’
Joo Yi-Gyeol’s sensitivity must have come from his exhausted mind. If that’s the case, there’s bound to be an emotional loophole. A loophole that is soft enough to break easily when tapped.
‘That could also be the reason he’s clinging to Sethian.’
Joo Yi-Gyeol would habitually stare at the door from Sethian’s bedroom all day, waiting for its owner to return every day. Sethian isn’t particularly confining him, so he’s likely to go out on his own at least once, but like a trained puppy that doesn’t move without its owner’s permission, he’s always dutifully staying inside the room.
In Zair’s perspective, Joo Yi-Gyeol was a completely passive person. A weak individual who couldn’t do anything on his own without Sethian’s orders and gestures, and has totally surrendered everything to him.
‘But only that wouldn’t explain everything.’
There has to be a reason why Sethian is obsessed with him.
The Sethian that Zair knew wasn’t the kind of person who would pay attention to such a passive human being. He must’ve been fascinated due to some other factor and that caused Sethian to touch golden magic. In addition, he is constantly in a hurry to share his vitality and kiss him every day and leave him his mark. Even in the garden, once he noticed that Sethian was approaching, he deliberately reached out his hand, and as expected, Sethian exhibited an uncharacteristically rough reaction. It was the first time Sethian had ever been so obsessed and responsive due to a particular person.
If it were someone else, of course, he would’ve thought of unsettling words such as love. However, Sethian, who clearly lacks most human emotions, could not have done so.
Only ‘interest’ can move Sethian.
But there were significantly fewer substantial interesting elements in the person called Joo Yi-Gyeol. He is passive, weak, and one-sidedly solely sees his owner. It ludicrously doesn’t make sense that Sethian let an ‘all-I-have-is-you’ guy by his side and cherished him.
What’s absolutely special about Joo Yi-Gyeol is that his body wouldn’t die even if he stays in the soul state, and he was able to wander around as a ‘living soul.’ In addition, Joo Yi-Gyeol is the first soul that Sethian was able to communicate with.
That was definitely something Sethian would be interested in, however, it didn’t seem like he was thinking of ‘mass-producing an army by using a living soul’ as he did. In the first place, it would have been impossible to imagine unless a provision was put in place for the vitality that would be tremendously consumed.
‘It’s still vague, but I’ll make sure to find out when I met him.’
If he could peek into the heart of Joo Yi-Gyeol that no one but Sethian could open, he will inevitably find out those interesting elements of him.
Knock, knock-
“Prince, a servant who was granted permission to visit has come to see you.”
Zair, who was once again reminiscing the face of Joo Yi-Gyeol who he met in the garden, turned his eyes and looked towards the door. He permitted to let the person in and the door soon opened.
The young man who walked into the room certainly looked familiar. In the first place, there was only one servant he allowed to visit and that was solely the emperor’s attendant. Zair’s gaze reached his bandaged wrist. The hand that should have been there, is unsurprisingly missing.
Zair’s smile grew even stronger. And as if in response to that, a sharp light settled within the servant’s sorrowful eyes.
⋆♚⋆♛⋆♚⋆
“This should be the item that you wanted.”
Roa visited Sethian’s castle early in the morning and handed Yi-Gyeol a purse that he had brought from the tower. Once opened, it revealed a finger-length vial containing a murky gray liquid.
“It’s a sleeping fragrance containing the drug developed by the magic tower. It’s very potent that even just a slight scent can make anyone instantly fall asleep.”
Roa briefly introduced the Sleeping Fragrance and asked with a thoroughly worried face.
“You also lose vitality each time you leave your body, so frequent use of it is absolutely prohibited.”
“I understand, I’ll be careful.”
Yi-Gyeol made a promise not only to Roa but also to Sethian with his eyes, and carefully asked while examining the sleeping fragrance.
“Do I have to open the cork to smell it? If I collapse as soon as it wafts, wouldn’t the bottle break or spill all the liquid inside if I dropped it? If so, everyone around will fall asleep….”
At the mouth of the vial containing the sleeping fragrance, a cork was serving as its lid. It’s all good until you open and smell it, but the problem is what comes after that.
Roa grinned and said there was no need to open the stopper.
“Its scent is so strong that it seeps into the cork. If it’s as far away as it is now, it wouldn’t have any effect on anyone, but if you put it right under your nose and sniffed the plug, you will fall asleep straight away because of the sleeping fragrance fused in it. You don’t have to open the lid to use it.”
Yi-Gyeol conspicuously nodded at Roa’s explanation, bringing the glass vial to his nose with a somewhat nervous expression. However, Sethian abruptly grabbed his wrist and blocked it.
“It’s not dangerous, is it?”
Roa quickly answered Sethian’s piercing question.
“We at the magic tower are working hard to create things that will be helpful to the people of our empire in all aspects, so of course, there are no major side effects…!”
“Judging from what you’re saying, the fact that there are no major side effects means that there are minor side effects.”
A ferocious glare mixed within Sethian’s eyes. Roa smiled nervously and carefully chose the words he would release from his mouth.
“That is true with all types of drugs as long as one doesn’t overuse it.”
“Be precise, what kind of side effects?”
“…Aside from going out of the body, using too much sleeping fragrance may keep him from waking up for a while. Since it is a drug for sleep, even if it’s just an incense, its effect cannot be ignored if it accumulates in the body for a short period of time.”
At Roa’s careful words, the corners of Sethian’s eyes slightly distorted. Just as the words to take it back were about to come out of his mouth, Yi-Gyeol smiled at Sethian as if saying it was fine.
“I’m not planning to use it often in just a span of time anyway. And you don’t have to worry too much, because if I’m just in my OOBE state, I can get back to my body and wake up in no time.”
As if to appease Sethian who was still dissatisfied, Yi-Gyeol’s hand that was holding the vial fell off his nose.
Yi-Gyeol looked down at the fragrance within his hand. Actually, there was no difference here than when he was in his original world, he could fall asleep easily just by thinking about it, and he also just had to imagine his soul escaping from his body before he fell asleep if he wanted it and he would escape his body without fail.
Imagining the familiar sensation that had made him sick and tired of it up until now, he slowly brought the sleeping fragrance to his nose. Just as he smelled the unique scent that characteristically comes from a cork, something sour and a potent aroma set in. As soon as he thought that it was a very unusual scent, his eyes instantly went dark.
Soon after, Yi-Gyeol was able to look down at Roa, who was looking up at him in the air, and Sethian, who had received his sleeping body.